Have you ever walked down the street and see someone homeless? Maybe you haven't, but if you did it's not a pretty sight. Homeless people in Philadelphia tend to roam the streets, sleep anywhere, pan handle at multiple septa locations, and much more. People who are homeless have to deal with a lot of issues like where their next meal is coming from, where will they sleep, how will they get money, and more. Food, protection, and shelter is a big factor of living and the fact that people are homeless that makes it harder on themselves to provide and also survive. Even some homeless people have too much pride to goto shelters. I thought to myself that its not the fact that the person is faking their homelessness or not, but either way that person is ill and attention is needed. My capstone was helping the homeless and that is exactly what I did. I thought about the different needs and things a homeless person would want like food, clothing, money, and other personal needs to take care of themselves so I did the best I could do. With the help of an SLA alumni parent my capstone mentor (Mr. Joe Willard) and I thought about the ways I could pitch in and leave and impact on the environment. He is the vice president of Philadelphia's People's Emergency Center and a well known individual. With my ideas and goals Mr. Willard helped and guided me into the right path.

In this source it basically talks about how poverty doesn’t define people or situations. It is possible to have a good life even if you’re labeled as poor. There are many good views about poverty. Many people think negatively when they hear the word “poverty”. When hearing poverty even myself used to think, “dirty, trashy, poor, lower class”, and reasons for that is because growing up in a city rated #3 for poverty and homelessness in the U.S. they are things I see when roaming the street. Prior to my knowledge there were many more insights about the reality of poverty. In the article, “10 Shocking Realities Of Modern Poverty.” Morris talks about 10 shocking and revealing things about the poverty happening today. His list of things relating to poverty consisted of the following: chronic illness, relocation, early death, homelessness, low social mobility, lifelong debt, working poverty, loss of human rights, hungry kids, child mortality. It basically gives me an overall on poverty and homelessness.

In this source the article provides a lot of feedback on the topic of reality and poverty. When first reading this article I saw a quote that amazed me. The quote said, “While pockets of genuinely severe deprivation do exist even in the Western world’s lands of plenty, most notably in inner cities and rural areas such as Appalachia, the overall picture of the poor in the United States is starkly different from the rest of the globe. On other continents—in slums, rural villages and jungles far from any kind of government-funded social programs—what is it like to be among the “have not’s”? After reading that quote I thought to myself, “What does this actually mean?”, so I redefined it. That quote meant that many populated cities in the United States today are basically portrayed as wealthy and a fine environment to live in, but most of those environments are struggling and need help. Many of the attention directed towards poverty aren’t really making clearer images for people to actually see.

In this source I read about an article called, “The Reality of Poverty” and it also included new obtainable data and information. By now in my chapter you should’ve basically learned much about poverty, the relationship between the economy and the people, and how people enter into the stage of poverty. Now I am going to surely bring my essential question into play and relate it to my deeper questionings and thoughts. What is the reality of poverty according to this article? Well, this article is focused on the aftermath of poverty that happens in the United States and what actions could be taken place.

In this article it provides a lot of helpful information to use and obtain for knowledge prior to the reality of poverty happening in current day America. First lets start off by stating some statistics that I have found and hear some explanations that I have for each of them. it shows that the articles name actually has proof to back up its theory. America’s system of poverty actually is mainstream. Think of it this way, poverty in America is mainstream because people fail to realize that there are pros and cons of living in poverty. Most people assume that people who live in poverty are poor, have no home, or lives near an abandoned subway or church.

In this source it talks about how starting at the age of 25, you have a lot of things to take care of and responsibilities. Whether you have a child, going to school still, out of school and paying off debts, or just working… all citizens have something that they have to take care of and that’s just apart of growing up in life. Times in today’s economy are rough and surely even if you have money and “middle class” or not, you must have to learn the economy is rapidly changing and people have to fully adjust to it in order to be financially stable.

In this source I think the main idea was to show how when you take a stand and help someone who is going through homelessness overcome their situation you are both apart of something good and the person is too. In this source a girl is interviewed, followed to school, and is looked at from a different perspective since people knows that she is poor and doesn’t have the best house around as possible. She lives in a house of trash and dangerous living conditions, but as time passes overtime peoples then get involved such as organizations and big time names in helping her. This was the motivation for my capstone.

What stood out to me in this source that made me use it is that it talked about numbers and facts a lot. I have learned that statistics say that at least over 54% of Americans in their lifespan will spend at least one year going through poverty or near the state of living in poverty. At least 40% of Americans ranging from ages 25 through age 60 will most likely experience a year below the poverty level. I found this source very useful because it helped me know about the things that people involved in homelessness ever go through and what the numbers look like on paper. Things like this would be good for my presentation.

In this source it talks about how their are multiple insights of poverty which leads to the topic of homelessness. Becoming homeless and just the state of being homeless has been misjudged by people and in this video Hans Rolling does just that by talking to the public in his Ted Talk on what he believes is the way to guiding people to the right path of seeing why homeless people feel uncomfortable going into shelters, asking for help, rather beg for many, and many many more issues. Hans Rolling discusses a lot of things that I never thought about and should ever be discussed with the public.

In this source it talks about more information just like the others. Homelessness, how to prevent it, how it starts. The main argument of this source is that it eventually likes to bring into play that poverty in the U.S. is an occurring event because of less job opportunities for people that are low class citizens, which forces many of those lower class citizens to live off of welfare, social security, and over government provided programs for people in need of financial help. This will come to show that homelessness in America and poverty itself is being overlooked by people who don’t know enough about this topic or people who are not educated. Poverty shouldn’t exist in extreme ways, the government should step up more.

In this source I thought it was helpful because it talks about different ways to contribute to homelessness, how to end poverty, and the different ways of how to avoid the improper way of approaching it. This source was amazing to me also because this pdf in the source provides a great amount of info on where to go if homeless and how to still feel special and not down. How to bring yourself up if you are going into a homeless position. Shelters and other programs for people who need to get special help and attention for themselves and their family.